Magnificent Seven / Dance: The Clash – 1981
Hey, Wassup! Happy New… Year? I guess? Didn’t mean to ghost you after… how many
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Wassup! ceetay here, the Doc Brown to your Marty McFly. Okay, I’ll just cut to the disappointment. We’re not traveling back anywhere this time. No, no, the Waveback Machine is fine. Everything’s in tip top shape. It’s just… I can’t time travel anywhere without mentioning what has happened in Hip Hop recently. It… doesn’t feel right. What happened? You mean, you didn’t see the increased amount of YouTube, TikTok and Reels dissecting the latest rap beef in 2024?
Yes, even I, an old head, couldn’t escape social media’s algorithm like the New York Knicks can’t escape the agony of defeat. I mean, c’mon! Will that damn team ever win an NBA championship in my lifetime??!! Anyway, I first became interested in researching Drake and Kendrick’s (aka K-Dot) tracks as an example of how recorded rap beefs have evolved since the 1980s. This battle peaked my interest enough to postpone my original plan in revisiting one of the biggest recorded battles in the 80s. Why? This K-dot/Drake beef could, emphasize the word could, be a turning point in how people perceive Rap and Hip Hop culture in 2024 and beyond.
I’ll just come out and say it. I haven’t listened to rap on a daily basis for more than a decade. It’s not because of age. I wouldn’t be writing about this particular beef between Kendrick and Drake if that were the case. I felt the music and the culture surrounding it had lost the main ingredient that carried their weight for more than 50 years.
Of course, It’s a generalized take. Underground rappers, scratch that, emcees, will always exist. Just like deejays/turntablists, graffiti writers and b-boys/b-girls will always exist. Hell, I’m looking forward to watch dancers from all over the world battle for gold, silver and bronze metals. Yes, Breakdancing will be an Olympic sport for the first time this summer during the Paris 2024 Olympics. Real Hip Hop will always exist.
Mainstream rap music industry has other ideas and, dare I say, agendas it pushes to millions of fans. I mean, rap acts like Vanilla Ice, Mc Hammer and PM Dawn have had their day of popularity. The Sugar Hill Gang is considered the first Rap Pop act for reasons that coincidently had been brought up during the Kendrick/Drake beef. But in recent years, mainstream artists never managed to capture the attention from people who consider themselves “real Hip Hop heads”. For some reason, the distinction between who’s the best rapper has been watered down to all the criteria, except pure lyricism. As a result, the course correction from the mainstream often done by real Hip Hop heads has been less effective… at least from a Hip Hop purist’s perspective.
What’s a Hip Hop purist and who is considered to be one these days? First off, the term “Hip Hop” has been bastardized more than the word “Woke”. Let me put it to you this way: If you get that Rap is part of Hip Hop and they’re not interchangeable, and you get the difference between a Rapper and an Emcee? Then you, my dear reader, may be considered a Hip Hop purist. But what does this have to do with K-Dot and Drake’s beef? Alright, let’s get to it!
I gotta fess up here. The first time I heard about Kendrick Lamar was in 2020 during numerous BLM protests against the George Floyd killing. Countless protesters chanted “We’re gonna be alright!” It’s reminiscent of me bringing my Public Enemy 12” single of Shut ‘Em Down to a college rally supporting the LA riots against the cops’ acquittal despite killing Rodney King in 1991. Alright rose to prominence again in the emotional Black Panther: Wakanda Forever teaser trailer in 2022. When Bob Marley’s No Woman No Cry masterfully morphed into K-Dot’s “We’ll be alright…”, I couldn’t, and I still can’t, stop my tears from falling. Since then his name kept popping up and now that I know he’s one of the main protagonists in this world heavyweight rap beef, I wasn’t surprised.
Whenever I see Drake, I see Jimmy Brooks, the teen television character he played in Degrassi: The Next Generation for several years. Is that fair? Probably not. When I discovered he went from acting to rapping, I was happy for him. Judging by the hits he has made, I suspected his style was more on the Pop side, which is fine. It suited him. I personally gravitate to underground artists who experiment with their beats and rhymes. Despite what I may or may not think of his rapping skills, it’s a great accomplishment to succeed from one high profile career to another. Let’s see if his mainstream success as one of the best rappers in the game right now lives up to the hype.
According to my crash course in consuming countless videos, it began with Kendrick’s mic drop worthy verse on Big Sean’s Control in 2013. He downright name-dropped most of the big hitters at that time, including J. Cole and Drake. All of them reportedly weren’t butthurt about it, except one: Drake. See, he felt some type of way since he chose Kendrick as one of his opening acts on the Club Paradise tour.
The subliminal Drake disses intensified with K-Dot’s verse on the TDE Cypher freestyle performance, with the help of the eternal instrumental from Mobb Deep’s Shook Ones, Part II, during the 2013 BET Awards.
Going into this beef, I had no favorites, no interest in the outcome whatsoever. After listening to all the diss tracks in order, there was a clear winner. Who do I think won? Read on. I’ll tell you at the end of this post.
Let’s rundown each track in order. Let’s start with Drake’s First Person Shooter featuring J. Cole. After being mentioned in K-Dot’s Control verse, J. Cole inserted himself as the third participant in this diss tournament. He coined the infamous phrase “The Big Three”, meaning he, Kendrick and Drake are the three best rappers in the game today. Did the other two agree?
Drake seemed cool with it. Kendrick? Well, it would be a while until he gave his definitive answer. When he did, he woke up and chose violence before stepping into the studio and dropping another combative verse on Future & Metro Boomin’s Like That declaring, “Motherfuck the big three, …it’s just big me!” Then, as Yoda would say: Begun, the Diss War has.
Drake struck back with Push Ups. Kendrick didn’t respond… for a long minute. Drake pounced on the opportunity to clown him using the latest technology. He used A.I. Yep, he thought it was a great idea to use Tupac and Snoop’s A.I.-manipulated voices to troll K-Dot on Taylor Made Freestyle. Look, I’m all for creative expression and using tech in unexpected ways, but using Tupac’s voice, a man who has been dead for almost 30 years, is distasteful to me. Using Snoop’s voice, literally putting words in his mouth, is equally distasteful. Imagine Masta Ace imitating Biz Markie’s voice without permission on Me & The Biz to diss KRS-One in 1990. Masta Ace and Biz Markie were affiliated with the Juice Crew. The most notable member, MC Shan, traded diss records with Boogie Down Productions’ emcee KRS-One. That would’ve been stupid for Masta Ace if he had done that, especially when the Juice Crew/BDP feud was long over. You get what I’m sayin’? Many artists have clowned their targets over the years. That’s expected. Creating zombified bars to son your opponent, that’s taking it too far.
No wonder the Shakur family forced Drake to remove Taylor Made Freestyle off the internet. This right here had me starting to question if Drake truly respected the culture that helped get him over to the kind of fans that would’ve normally gave him the side eye.
There was supposed to be a third rapper in this feud, remember? J Cole entered the ring and released 7 Minute Drill dissing Kendrick. No surprise there. K-Dot attacked “the big three” concept like a pit bull attacking a mail carrier. 7 Minute Drill was good, although having “7 Minute” in the title kinda suggests the track would last 7 minutes, not 3 plus minutes. But that’s just me. J Cole’s nice with his lyrics and flow. This three way main event could’ve been fire. However, J Cole took down the song a week later and apologized to Kendrick and withdrew from the fight, like a political candidate withdrawing from an election. Yet, unlike a political candidate, I don’t believe his actions were calculated or cowardly.
Many people, however, were pissed; it’s an unspoken rule in Hip Hop to never back down, never surrender. Maybe he knew Drake and Kendrick were gonna take this battle in a direction he wasn’t willing to go. I commend him for bowing out gracefully. Bravado and ego will forever reign supreme in these rap battles. Unfortunately, history has shown us how these beefs can get out of hand, directly and indirectly. If you know, you know.
Shortly after the Taylor Made Freestyle fiasco though, Drake’s confidence grew. The constant pressure from him and his fans was as if K-Dot was under the shot clock like this was the NBA Finals. Fortunately for K-Dot fans, he came through before the clock expired and released a double shot of songs to either calm the waters or stir them, the masses would soon be the judge.
Euphoria and 6:16 in LA struck hard and fast. The two tracks were dropped back-to-back. Although there were many jabs and upper cuts in each track, K-dot held back just enough as if to tell Drake “We don’t have to get too serious. Keep it friendly and professional. But if you wanna take all the way there, then I can take it further.”
Drake’s clap back didn’t heed said warnings. Family Matters attempted to hit as hard as Mike Tyson. Drake threw out a flurry of allegations of wife beating and Kendrick’s wife cheating on him and bearing a child that isn’t his. Yeah, this was starting to get nasty.
Drake must have been basking in the familiar glow of success. Family Matters was his best track from this feud so far, I’d equate it to a standing eight count. Within an hour, all the positive buzz Drake expected to hear from countless livestreams evaporated. Word came from social media that Kendrick dropped his response.
What can I say about Meet The Grahams? It was like he threw the right punch at the right angle, which caused the most impact. Kendrick strategically went to Drake’s, or should I say Aubrey’s, family members, by name, one-by-one. The biggest mic drops? Accusing Drake of being a deadbeat Dad to the point of hiding yet another child and being a pedophile (or in YouTube speak: PDF file) and letting his son hang around other sexual deviants in Drake’s OVO camp. I guess these were the warning shots Kendrick was talking about.
Both guys were slinging heavy accusations like they were slinging mashed potatoes during a food fight. Is it important for these accusations to be true? Ideally, yes. But this is Hip Hop. Many lyrical assaults worse than this have been spoken out of the mouths of countless emcees throughout the years. I mean, Tupac claiming in Hit ‘Em Up to have had Biggie’s wife still hasn’t been confirmed. Doesn’t make it right, but it is what it is.
Another thing that struck me was the beat used for “Meet The Grahams”. It reminded me of East Coast Rap style from 90s groups like Mobb Deep, Black Moon and Smif-N-Wessen. I’m not saying Meet The Grahams mimicked these groups, but it evokes a similar sinister, yet laid back vibe from that time.
Meet The Grahams should’ve been enough, right? Right? Kendrick said “Hold up! Wait a minute!” and swiftly dropped Not Like Us in attempts to secure a knockout blow. However, it was like a New Orleans funeral. If you’re confused by that reference, go watch video clips of people playing instruments and dancing while carrying caskets down the street. It’s more of a celebration of life than mourning death. But in this case, Kendrick wanted to end this beef with people dancing to a West Coast Summer anthem. I believe he succeeded, big time.
Lyric wise, K-Dot doubled down on the accusations against Drake and his OVO crew, calling them out for being creepy to minors. Kendrick went so far as to give the Canadian rapper an American history lesson, equating how early settlers used local Atlanta residents for personal gain to Drake doing the same thing. In other words Kendrick called Drake a Colonizer; a Culture Vulture.
Eventually, Drake released The Heart Part 6. It was his way to end the heavyweight bout still on his feet. He wanted to end the battle on his own terms. Many people believe, including me, only Drake and his ride-or-die fans actually believe that.
When Kendrick said in Euphoria: “I make music that electrify ‘em/ You (Drake) make music that pacify ‘em”, it describes my love/hate relationship with how Rap has been packaged and sold since the late 80s. This beef was stripped down to simply two dudes with different rapping styles and different philosophies battling it out for the masses to see, hear and judge.
Compare a person or a group of friends in 1981 listening to The Treacherous Three battle Fantastic Five live on a late night radio station to a person or a group of friends in 2024 hearing Kendrick and Drake’s tracks back-to-back live on an internet livestream. What’s different today is these diss tracks are treated as its own event. Online streamers and people in chatrooms react to certain bars as they happen like they’re watching these artists live on stage.
I loved watching other people’s excitement on countless reaction videos as they share their opinions about which bars they liked the most.
What I picked up right away was Drake’s delivery was more melodic and his cadence was decent enough. What took me out of enjoying his rhymes more was the use of autotunes. I have no problem with vibing to mechanically altered voices in general. It has been done in many variations for many years. To me, in 2024, autotunes remind me of how generic and lifeless music has become, not just in Rap, but in every genre.
Kendrick’s flow and delivery sounded more natural. One of the reasons why I like Euphoria and Not Like Us the most is how he uses various inflections and emphasized certain words and phrases like a lot of the best emcees had done before him. Kendrick displayed his emotions as if he was in a lively conversation at a family barbecue or at the barbershop.
And let’s not forget the double and triple entendres in almost every line, the same ones Drake tried to downplay during this beef. That playful use of the English language was what separated rappers from emcees since this Rap thing started.
My old head’s perspective has come to this conclusion: Drake’s a rapper. Kendrick’s an emcee. Okay, that might not be entirely true. Drake’s also an actor. Always has been. He’s acting as if he’s the greatest rapper right now. Kendrick has proven to be a world class emcee, that’s not something anyone can cosplay. It has to be in your soul. It has to represent a part of who you are. It doesn’t mean people have to live in the hood to come off as real. You just have to come correct. That’s why K-Dot won. More importantly, that’s why real Hip Hop won.
That’s it! Whether you agree with my opinions or not, I hope you enjoyed this special blog post. I’ll be linking all the songs from this feud, from First Person Shooter to The Heart Part 6. I’ll even include a link to Kendrick’s live set at The Pop Out: Ken & Friends event held on Juneteenth (June 19th, 2024). I’m pretty sure this’ll keep you busy.
UPDATE: Kendrick dropped the Not Like Us music video on July 4th, 2024. It’s equally as clever as the song itself. Make sure you peep that before we meet back here on this blog when I’ll resume my regularly scheduled program to guide you back in time!
Til then, I’m ceetay, your time travel guide to the old school. Seeeee Yaaaaa!
In between much needed time travel arrangements, and maintenance, ceetay’s off-time consists of sitcom TV watching, Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream eating and gathering thoughts and information about old school music that have been either forgotten or buried under mountains of predatory corporate copyright claims. If you ever find yourself standing close enough, you might catch ceetay muttering, “If creativity is not allowed to be inspired by its history, culture will inevitably lose its meaning.”
Wassup! ceetay here, the Doc Brown to your Marty McFly. Okay, I’ll just cut to the disappointment. We’re not traveling back anywhere this time. No, no, the Waveback Machine is fine. Everything’s in tip top shape. It’s just… I can’t time travel anywhere without mentioning what has happened in Hip Hop recently. It… doesn’t feel right. What happened? You mean, you didn’t see the increased amount of YouTube, TikTok and Reels dissecting the latest rap beef in 2024?
Yes, even I, an old head, couldn’t escape social media’s algorithm like the New York Knicks can’t escape the agony of defeat. I mean, c’mon! Will that damn team ever win an NBA championship in my lifetime??!! Anyway, I first became interested in researching Drake and Kendrick’s (aka K-Dot) tracks as an example of how recorded rap beefs have evolved since the 1980s. This battle peaked my interest enough to postpone my original plan in revisiting one of the biggest recorded battles in the 80s. Why? This K-dot/Drake beef could, emphasize the word could, be a turning point in how people perceive Rap and Hip Hop culture in 2024 and beyond.
I’ll just come out and say it. I haven’t listened to rap on a daily basis for more than a decade. It’s not because of age. I wouldn’t be writing about this particular beef between Kendrick and Drake if that were the case. I felt the music and the culture surrounding it had lost the main ingredient that carried their weight for more than 50 years.
Of course, It’s a generalized take. Underground rappers, scratch that, emcees, will always exist. Just like deejays/turntablists, graffiti writers and b-boys/b-girls will always exist. Hell, I’m looking forward to watch dancers from all over the world battle for gold, silver and bronze metals. Yes, Breakdancing will be an Olympic sport for the first time this summer during the Paris 2024 Olympics. Real Hip Hop will always exist.
Mainstream rap music industry has other ideas and, dare I say, agendas it pushes to millions of fans. I mean, rap acts like Vanilla Ice, Mc Hammer and PM Dawn have had their day of popularity. The Sugar Hill Gang is considered the first Rap Pop act for reasons that coincidently had been brought up during the Kendrick/Drake beef. But in recent years, mainstream artists never managed to capture the attention from people who consider themselves “real Hip Hop heads”. For some reason, the distinction between who’s the best rapper has been watered down to all the criteria, except pure lyricism. As a result, the course correction from the mainstream often done by real Hip Hop heads has been less effective… at least from a Hip Hop purist’s perspective.
What’s a Hip Hop purist and who is considered to be one these days? First off, the term “Hip Hop” has been bastardized more than the word “Woke”. Let me put it to you this way: If you get that Rap is part of Hip Hop and they’re not interchangeable, and you get the difference between a Rapper and an Emcee? Then you, my dear reader, may be considered a Hip Hop purist. But what does this have to do with K-Dot and Drake’s beef? Alright, let’s get to it!
I gotta fess up here. The first time I heard about Kendrick Lamar was in 2020 during numerous BLM protests against the George Floyd killing. Countless protesters chanted “We’re gonna be alright!” It’s reminiscent of me bringing my Public Enemy 12” single of Shut ‘Em Down to a college rally supporting the LA riots against the cops’ acquittal despite killing Rodney King in 1991. Alright rose to prominence again in the emotional Black Panther: Wakanda Forever teaser trailer in 2022. When Bob Marley’s No Woman No Cry masterfully morphed into K-Dot’s “We’ll be alright…”, I couldn’t, and I still can’t, stop my tears from falling. Since then his name kept popping up and now that I know he’s one of the main protagonists in this world heavyweight rap beef, I wasn’t surprised.
Whenever I see Drake, I see Jimmy Brooks, the teen television character he played in Degrassi: The Next Generation for several years. Is that fair? Probably not. When I discovered he went from acting to rapping, I was happy for him. Judging by the hits he has made, I suspected his style was more on the Pop side, which is fine. It suited him. I personally gravitate to underground artists who experiment with their beats and rhymes. Despite what I may or may not think of his rapping skills, it’s a great accomplishment to succeed from one high profile career to another. Let’s see if his mainstream success as one of the best rappers in the game right now lives up to the hype.
According to my crash course in consuming countless videos, it began with Kendrick’s mic drop worthy verse on Big Sean’s Control in 2013. He downright name-dropped most of the big hitters at that time, including J. Cole and Drake. All of them reportedly weren’t butthurt about it, except one: Drake. See, he felt some type of way since he chose Kendrick as one of his opening acts on the Club Paradise tour.
The subliminal Drake disses intensified with K-Dot’s verse on the TDE Cypher freestyle performance, with the help of the eternal instrumental from Mobb Deep’s Shook Ones, Part II, during the 2013 BET Awards.
Going into this beef, I had no favorites, no interest in the outcome whatsoever. After listening to all the diss tracks in order, there was a clear winner. Who do I think won? Read on. I’ll tell you at the end of this post.
Let’s rundown each track in order. Let’s start with Drake’s First Person Shooter featuring J. Cole. After being mentioned in K-Dot’s Control verse, J. Cole inserted himself as the third participant in this diss tournament. He coined the infamous phrase “The Big Three”, meaning he, Kendrick and Drake are the three best rappers in the game today. Did the other two agree?
Drake seemed cool with it. Kendrick? Well, it would be a while until he gave his definitive answer. When he did, he woke up and chose violence before stepping into the studio and dropping another combative verse on Future & Metro Boomin’s Like That declaring, “Motherfuck the big three, …it’s just big me!” Then, as Yoda would say: Begun, the Diss War has.
Drake struck back with Push Ups. Kendrick didn’t respond… for a long minute. Drake pounced on the opportunity to clown him using the latest technology. He used A.I. Yep, he thought it was a great idea to use Tupac and Snoop’s A.I.-manipulated voices to troll K-Dot on Taylor Made Freestyle. Look, I’m all for creative expression and using tech in unexpected ways, but using Tupac’s voice, a man who has been dead for almost 30 years, is distasteful to me. Using Snoop’s voice, literally putting words in his mouth, is equally distasteful. Imagine Masta Ace imitating Biz Markie’s voice without permission on Me & The Biz to diss KRS-One in 1990. Masta Ace and Biz Markie were affiliated with the Juice Crew. The most notable member, MC Shan, traded diss records with Boogie Down Productions’ emcee KRS-One. That would’ve been stupid for Masta Ace if he had done that, especially when the Juice Crew/BDP feud was long over. You get what I’m sayin’? Many artists have clowned their targets over the years. That’s expected. Creating zombified bars to son your opponent, that’s taking it too far.
No wonder the Shakur family forced Drake to remove Taylor Made Freestyle off the internet. This right here had me starting to question if Drake truly respected the culture that helped get him over to the kind of fans that would’ve normally gave him the side eye.
There was supposed to be a third rapper in this feud, remember? J Cole entered the ring and released 7 Minute Drill dissing Kendrick. No surprise there. K-Dot attacked “the big three” concept like a pit bull attacking a mail carrier. 7 Minute Drill was good, although having “7 Minute” in the title kinda suggests the track would last 7 minutes, not 3 plus minutes. But that’s just me. J Cole’s nice with his lyrics and flow. This three way main event could’ve been fire. However, J Cole took down the song a week later and apologized to Kendrick and withdrew from the fight, like a political candidate withdrawing from an election. Yet, unlike a political candidate, I don’t believe his actions were calculated or cowardly.
Many people, however, were pissed; it’s an unspoken rule in Hip Hop to never back down, never surrender. Maybe he knew Drake and Kendrick were gonna take this battle in a direction he wasn’t willing to go. I commend him for bowing out gracefully. Bravado and ego will forever reign supreme in these rap battles. Unfortunately, history has shown us how these beefs can get out of hand, directly and indirectly. If you know, you know.
Shortly after the Taylor Made Freestyle fiasco though, Drake’s confidence grew. The constant pressure from him and his fans was as if K-Dot was under the shot clock like this was the NBA Finals. Fortunately for K-Dot fans, he came through before the clock expired and released a double shot of songs to either calm the waters or stir them, the masses would soon be the judge.
Euphoria and 6:16 in LA struck hard and fast. The two tracks were dropped back-to-back. Although there were many jabs and upper cuts in each track, K-dot held back just enough as if to tell Drake “We don’t have to get too serious. Keep it friendly and professional. But if you wanna take all the way there, then I can take it further.”
Drake’s clap back didn’t heed said warnings. Family Matters attempted to hit as hard as Mike Tyson. Drake threw out a flurry of allegations of wife beating and Kendrick’s wife cheating on him and bearing a child that isn’t his. Yeah, this was starting to get nasty.
Drake must have been basking in the familiar glow of success. Family Matters was his best track from this feud so far, I’d equate it to a standing eight count. Within an hour, all the positive buzz Drake expected to hear from countless livestreams evaporated. Word came from social media that Kendrick dropped his response.
What can I say about Meet The Grahams? It was like he threw the right punch at the right angle, which caused the most impact. Kendrick strategically went to Drake’s, or should I say Aubrey’s, family members, by name, one-by-one. The biggest mic drops? Accusing Drake of being a deadbeat Dad to the point of hiding yet another child and being a pedophile (or in YouTube speak: PDF file) and letting his son hang around other sexual deviants in Drake’s OVO camp. I guess these were the warning shots Kendrick was talking about.
Both guys were slinging heavy accusations like they were slinging mashed potatoes during a food fight. Is it important for these accusations to be true? Ideally, yes. But this is Hip Hop. Many lyrical assaults worse than this have been spoken out of the mouths of countless emcees throughout the years. I mean, Tupac claiming in Hit ‘Em Up to have had Biggie’s wife still hasn’t been confirmed. Doesn’t make it right, but it is what it is.
Another thing that struck me was the beat used for “Meet The Grahams”. It reminded me of East Coast Rap style from 90s groups like Mobb Deep, Black Moon and Smif-N-Wessen. I’m not saying Meet The Grahams mimicked these groups, but it evokes a similar sinister, yet laid back vibe from that time.
Meet The Grahams should’ve been enough, right? Right? Kendrick said “Hold up! Wait a minute!” and swiftly dropped Not Like Us in attempts to secure a knockout blow. However, it was like a New Orleans funeral. If you’re confused by that reference, go watch video clips of people playing instruments and dancing while carrying caskets down the street. It’s more of a celebration of life than mourning death. But in this case, Kendrick wanted to end this beef with people dancing to a West Coast Summer anthem. I believe he succeeded, big time.
Lyric wise, K-Dot doubled down on the accusations against Drake and his OVO crew, calling them out for being creepy to minors. Kendrick went so far as to give the Canadian rapper an American history lesson, equating how early settlers used local Atlanta residents for personal gain to Drake doing the same thing. In other words Kendrick called Drake a Colonizer; a Culture Vulture.
Eventually, Drake released The Heart Part 6. It was his way to end the heavyweight bout still on his feet. He wanted to end the battle on his own terms. Many people believe, including me, only Drake and his ride-or-die fans actually believe that.
When Kendrick said in Euphoria: “I make music that electrify ‘em/ You (Drake) make music that pacify ‘em”, it describes my love/hate relationship with how Rap has been packaged and sold since the late 80s. This beef was stripped down to simply two dudes with different rapping styles and different philosophies battling it out for the masses to see, hear and judge.
Compare a person or a group of friends in 1981 listening to The Treacherous Three battle Fantastic Five live on a late night radio station to a person or a group of friends in 2024 hearing Kendrick and Drake’s tracks back-to-back live on an internet livestream. What’s different today is these diss tracks are treated as its own event. Online streamers and people in chatrooms react to certain bars as they happen like they’re watching these artists live on stage.
I loved watching other people’s excitement on countless reaction videos as they share their opinions about which bars they liked the most.
What I picked up right away was Drake’s delivery was more melodic and his cadence was decent enough. What took me out of enjoying his rhymes more was the use of autotunes. I have no problem with vibing to mechanically altered voices in general. It has been done in many variations for many years. To me, in 2024, autotunes remind me of how generic and lifeless music has become, not just in Rap, but in every genre.
Kendrick’s flow and delivery sounded more natural. One of the reasons why I like Euphoria and Not Like Us the most is how he uses various inflections and emphasized certain words and phrases like a lot of the best emcees had done before him. Kendrick displayed his emotions as if he was in a lively conversation at a family barbecue or at the barbershop.
And let’s not forget the double and triple entendres in almost every line, the same ones Drake tried to downplay during this beef. That playful use of the English language was what separated rappers from emcees since this Rap thing started.
My old head’s perspective has come to this conclusion: Drake’s a rapper. Kendrick’s an emcee. Okay, that might not be entirely true. Drake’s also an actor. Always has been. He’s acting as if he’s the greatest rapper right now. Kendrick has proven to be a world class emcee, that’s not something anyone can cosplay. It has to be in your soul. It has to represent a part of who you are. It doesn’t mean people have to live in the hood to come off as real. You just have to come correct. That’s why K-Dot won. More importantly, that’s why real Hip Hop won.
That’s it! Whether you agree with my opinions or not, I hope you enjoyed this special blog post. I’ll be linking all the songs from this feud, from First Person Shooter to The Heart Part 6. I’ll even include a link to Kendrick’s live set at The Pop Out: Ken & Friends event held on Juneteenth (June 19th, 2024). I’m pretty sure this’ll keep you busy.
UPDATE: Kendrick dropped the Not Like Us music video on July 4th, 2024. It’s equally as clever as the song itself. Make sure you peep that before we meet back here on this blog when I’ll resume my regularly scheduled program to guide you back in time!
Til then, I’m ceetay, your time travel guide to the old school. Seeeee Yaaaaa!
In between much needed time travel arrangements, and maintenance, ceetay’s off-time consists of sitcom TV watching, Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream eating and gathering thoughts and information about old school music that have been either forgotten or buried under mountains of predatory corporate copyright claims. If you ever find yourself standing close enough, you might catch ceetay muttering, “If creativity is not allowed to be inspired by its history, culture will inevitably lose its meaning.
Hey, Wassup! Happy New… Year? I guess? Didn’t mean to ghost you after… how many
Yo, ho, ho! How’s it going! Enjoyed your Thanksgiving? You know… Thanksgiving. The holiday between